No pictures on this one, sorry :-)
We took the kids to the Copper Canyon Ward Christmas party tonight. Really, Aaron did take a lot of pictures and maybe some video too, but he is out watering our newly planted trees and can't come hook up the camera so I can download them right now. Maybe I'll post them next time. Anyway, I needed to comment on our party. It was pretty neat. The kids first were directed to a couple of rooms where they made gingerbread houses with graham crackers. Our kids absolutely loved it!! I am not an architect or any sort of construction person, so my two little boys got Santa Fe style houses (flat roof!) while Dad helped Ira and Joy and they had nice classic pitched roofs. (Imagine pictures here). Next we had dinner, YUM. Classic Christmas ham and potatoes and stuff. I helped out by making some of the potato casserole, which I am going to continue making at home.
The program was really neat. That's kinda where the thoughts came in that I wanted to remember to post. The program was a re-creation of sorts, the actors represented Brigham Young, Lucy Mack Smith, Hyrum Smith, and Joseph and Emma Smith. They spoke as if we were all at the Mansion house in Nauvoo celebrating not only Christmas but Joseph and Hyrum being freed from Liberty Jail. The musical numbers were awesome, my favorite was Kristine Mitchell's rendition of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." Wow. It was very different and I was enraptured. The best part, by far, was when they had a very simple nativity-- just Mary and Joseph and Jesus, and the actor playing Joseph Smith read from the Book of Mormon and the Bible, and then this passage from the Doctrine and Covenants:
22 And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!
23 For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father—
24 That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God. That was very touching to me.... a reminder of why we celebrate Christmas-- and that we don't just celebrate the Savior's birth, but His LIFE and his mission!
The absolute most poignant thing for me is this (bear with me). The kids had already been invited to sit up at the front on the floor, and they had all been more or less quiet, they were actually all kinda playing and talking on the floor during most of the program. But the second that Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus came out and they turned a light on them, the kids all swarmed over to the corner where they were, and they were absolutely silent during the reading of the scriptures, just looking at the scene. I think I had a couple of people worried who looked over and saw me openly crying at that. I'm pretty darn sure I was the only one crying. But it was amazing to me that this pretty high-energy group of kids (the Williamses are not the most hyper, by a long shot--that says something).... anyway, they were enraptured and you could just feel the love that they had and the Spirit that they could feel in that scene. Oh look, I'm crying again. -- Anyway, I thought I was being taught an important lesson right then and felt like I needed to share it. -- I'll post our Christmas party pictures later. Oh and pictures of the new trees, vines, shrubberies, etc. :-)
We dug out a huge bush that blocked our window, and put in some trellises (trelli?) with snail vine. The kids and Aaron planted a bunch of wildflower seed in under the snail vine a few weeks ago, which is just starting to sprout up. You can see (in the picture below), our hibiscus bushes on the east side of our front yard. It has been nice to have plants and trees that WE picked. Our next step (or one of them) is removing all the rock in front and planting grass.
